McFadden’s debut novel came out a decade ago and in the past ten years, the list of Freida McFadden books in order has grown to more than 20. In that time, she has written women’s or contemporary fiction, medical thrillers, and psychological thrillers.
However, she quickly found her voice with psychological thrillers and that is what she has become most well-known for. Her most popular book is The Housemaid which spent a year on the Amazon bestsellers list, but there are many more books to explore and enjoy in her bibliography.
About Freida McFadden
While Freida McFadden self-published her debut novel in 2013, she wrote her first novel years before that when she was 11 years old. As she was growing up, she loved reading The Baby-Sitter’s Club by Ann M. Martin and Judy Blume.
McFadden can’t remember who the murderer was in her first novel, but she does know it was a mystery thriller, which is not surprising for the author.
What may be surprising for some fans to learn, however, is that McFadden’s first published novel falls more within the genre of women’s or contemporary fiction. It takes place in a hospital, which is a locale McFadden knows well, and explores the hurdles of medical residency with humor and charm.
It is a locale that McFadden knows well because when she is not writing novels, she is a practicing physician. McFadden is a brain injury trained physician, which means she helps manage her patients’ recovery from traumatic and non-traumatic brain injuries.
However, she does say that her job at the hospital is part-time, and she has taken a step back from her medical career as her writing has grown in popularity.
It has grown substantially in the past two years. In April 2023 the adaptation rights for The Housemaid were secured after an intense bidding process. It will be adapted into a feature film for Lionsgate with Rebecca Sonnenshine writing the script.
Then in October 2023 the English print rights to McFadden’s novels were acquired by Sourcebooks. As mentioned, McFadden began by self-publishing her works, then worked with digital publisher Bookouture after not having any luck with agent or publisher queries. The Sourcebooks acquisition includes several new frontlist and backlist titles.
Is there a sequel to the book The Housemaid by Freida McFadden?
There is already one sequel to The Housemaid by Freida McFadden and there is another sequel forthcoming in June 2024. Each book advances the storyline and plot a little bit further along, meeting the main character in a new place in her life and presenting new challenges.
If you loved the dynamic of an outsider being inserted into a bizarre familial setting from The Housemaid, then you will absolutely enjoy The Housemaid’s Secret. McFadden carried the same voice and suspense into the sequel, while managing to spin the concept in a new and enjoyable way.
Finally, the third book in the series, The Housemaid is Watching continues to follow those themes and tropes while exploring the dark nature of secrets and a past that refuses to remain buried.
Freida McFadden Books in Order
Women’s Fiction
Dr. Jane McGill Books
Our list of the Freida McFadden books in order begins with her debut publication which is the first in a women’s fiction duology. These two books follow Dr. Jane McGill, who has recently become a doctor.
The first book documents her first month of medical internship at County Hospital as she goes toe-to-toe in a battle of wits with the Sexy Surgeon, a.k.a. Dr. Ryan Reilly.
Then the second book begins many years later as Jane is juggling her dream life as a doctor at a VA hospital with an adorable daughter and a loving husband. But there are cracks appearing in her marriage, and she learns that VA’s newest vascular surgeon is Dr. Ryan Reilly. The loveable jerk she broke up with a decade ago.
- The Devil Wears Scrubs (2013)
- The Devil You Know (2017)
Standalone Book
McFadden has collaborated with a fellow author on one novel, which is Baby City with Kelley Stoddard. It is a standalone featuring medical elements with its OB/GYN main character Emily McCoy. Emily works in the Labor and Delivery unit at a New York City hospital affectionately called Baby City and heralds baby after baby after baby into the world.
- Baby City (2015) (With Kelley Stoddard)
Psychological Thrillers
Prescription: Murder Books
The first psychological thrillers Freida McFadden wrote were also medical thrillers. While some of her later standalone thrillers contain medical elements, these two novels revolve around a medical setting.
The first book takes place at Southside Medical School which has the nickname Suicide Med because for the past six years a student has taken their own life. Last year was the exception with a murder-suicide, which garners the question…who will die next?
The next book follows a doctor who has her whole world ripped out from under her when she is shot in the head. Now she must recover from her brain injury while also trying to put together the puzzle pieces of who tried to kill her, before they finish what they started.
- Suicide Med (2014)
- Brain Damage (2016)
Standalone Books
The largest chunk of the Freida McFadden books in order are her standalone psychological thrillers, which she has published at an impressive pace. Since these are standalones, you can obviously read them in whichever order you wish or choose.
However, if you read them in publication order, you will be able to see how McFadden’s writing has evolved over time as well as common themes and tropes she uses in her books.
- The Surrogate Mother (2018)
- The Ex (2019)
- The Perfect Son (2020)
- The Wife Upstairs (2020)
- One By One (2020)
- Want to Know a Secret? (2021)
- The Locked Door (2021)
- Do Not Disturb (2021)
- Do You Remember? (2022)
- The Inmate (2022)
- Never Lie (2022)
- Ward D (2023)
- The Coworker (2023)
- The Teacher (2024)
The Housemaid Books
These are the books which McFadden is most well-known for and the books which brought thousands more readers to her bibliography. While it is possible to read each book in this series as a standalone, it is best to read them in order of publication if you are able.
That will follow the chronological order of events and maintain the suspense from book-to-book rather than accidentally spoiling events from previous books.
- The Housemaid (2022)
- The Housemaid’s Secret (2023)
- The Housemaid Is Watching (Expected: June 11, 2024)
Novelette
Freida McFadden has also published one shorter story, which is holiday themed. This story is a novelette, which means it falls between a short story and a novella. It is six chapters long, plus an epilogue, and as one might imagine by the title, it is a thriller inspired by the Christmas classic The Gift of Magi by O. Henry.
Stella Hansen is working two jobs, but she is still so broke that she cannot afford to buy a present for her husband on their first Christmas as a married couple. Then a mysterious storekeeper at a pawn shop offers Stella a trade…but will it come at a terrible price?
- The Gift (2022)
Anthology
Finally, there is one anthology in McFadden’s bibliography for which she is both the editor and a contributor. The anthology is a collection of true, exaggerated, and false stories from a variety of healthcare practitioners. All profits from this book are donated to Deworm the World Initiative, which is a charity that treats parasitic infections in children in developing nations.
A Summary of Freida McFadden Books in Order
While McFadden’s The Housemaid books are her most popular, below you will find the summaries for her first ten standalone psychological thrillers. If you have already read The Housemaid and its sequel, this is a great way to experience more of Freida McFadden’s worldbuilding and plot twists.
1. The Surrogate Mother
Abby wants a baby more than anything. But years of failed infertility treatments and multiple adoptions that have fallen through, she has been left feeling bleak. That is until her personal assistant Monica makes an offer that will make all of Abby’s dreams come true.
Or all of her nightmares. That’s because Monica is not who she says she is. The woman now carrying Abby’s child has dark, twisted secrets and she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
2. The Ex
Cassie thinks Joel is the perfect man. He is sweet, handsome, romantic, and crazy about Cassie. She thinks she’s found the man she will spend the rest of her life with, have children with, and grow old with.
She knows about his perfect ex-girlfriend Francesca, who is a beautiful and brilliant chef beloved by all his friends. But she thinks Francesca is out of the picture. She thinks wrong.
3. The Perfect Son
When two detectives show up at her front door, Erika’s perfect family and life changes forever. A high school girl has gone missing from Erika’s quiet neighborhood in the suburbs and the police suspect murder.
Erika’s son Liam was the last person to see the girl alive. Erika has always sensed something dark and foreboding in her son. She wants to believe he is innocent, but as the evidence mounts she cannot deny that he may have committed the horrible crime.
Now Erika must ask herself how far she will go to protect her son.
4. The Wife Upstairs
Victoria Barnett has a great career, a loving husband, a beautiful home, and plans for children. Her life seems perfect, but then she’s in a terrible accident and everything falls apart.
She cannot walk, speak, feed, or dress herself. She is confined to the top floor of her house with around-the-clock care hired by her husband.
Sylvia Robinson is hired by Victoria’s husband to care for her, but it turns out Victoria isn’t as impaired as Sylvia was led to believe. There is a story that Victoria desperately wants to tell, then Sylvia finds her diary hidden away and what’s inside is shocking.
5. One By One
Claire Matchett did not expect to spend a night of her vacation sleeping on the cold ground. This vacation was supposed to be a break from work stress and her young children. It was also supposed to be a chance to repair her marriage while away with two other couple friends.
But then Claire’s minivan breaks down on a dirt road with no cell reception. They have no choice but to hike the rest of the way to their hotel, but it isn’t as easy to navigate the woods as they thought. They become hopelessly lost.
As they venture farther into the woods, members of their party are struck down one by one. Is a wild animal hunting them, or is the hunter one of them? It soon becomes clear that only one of them will return home alive.
6. Want to Know a Secret?
YouTube baking sensation April Masterson knows the secret to the perfect brownie or key lime square. But if you keep watching her offline, you will find out other secrets about April that she would rather you didn’t know.
For example, where did her son go when he snuck out of the house? What was she doing with the local soccer coach behind fogged windows? And what’s buried in her backyard?
Everyone has secrets and some are worse than others. April’s secrets are enough to destroy her.
7. The Locked Door
When Nora Davis was eleven years old, while she was up in her bedroom doing her homework, her father was in the basement murdering women. She had no idea until the day the police arrived at their front door.
But that was decades ago. Nora’s father is spending his life in jail and Nora has become a successful surgeon. Nobody knows her father was a notorious serial killer and she intends to keep it that way.
Then one of Nora’s young female patients is murdered in the same unique and horrific manner her father killed his victims. Someone knows who Nora is and wants her to take the fall for the crime, but she is nothing like her father. The police can’t pin anything on her…so long as they don’t look in her basement.
8. Do Not Disturb
Quinn Alexander has committed an unthinkable crime and to avoid spending the rest of her life in prison, she has gone on the run. She leaves everything behind and heads toward the northern border before the police learn what she’s done.
But an unexpected snowstorm forces her off the road and she must seek shelter at the isolated Baxter Motel. The owner Nick is kind, handsome, and more than happy to offer her a cheap room for the night. But the motel is not a safe haven; it has a dark and disturbing past.
The silhouette of Nick’s ailing wife is always at the window in the house across the way, always watching. Quinn must leave the motel in the morning and continue her flight to freedom, but first she must survive the night.
9. Do You Remember?
Tess Strebel cannot recognize her own face, her home, her bedroom, or the handsome stranger in her bed. A stranger who claims he is her husband.
But she reads a letter in her own handwriting from a rare lucid day in which she explains her life. One year ago, she was in a terrible car accident. Now every morning she wakes up unable to remember most of the past decade, including her wedding.
She has no choice but to accept her new life and hope that her memory will return one day. After all, why should she doubt a letter in her own handwriting? Or the kind man from the wedding photos on her dresser who seems to genuinely care about her?
But then she gets a text message telling her not to trust the man who calls himself her husband and everything changes.
10. The Inmate
As a new nurse practitioner at a maximum-security prison for men, Brooke Sullivan must follow three rules: Treat all prisoners with respect, never reveal personal information, and never ever become too friendly with the inmates.
But the staff don’t realize that Brooke has already broken the rules. No one knows about her intimate connection to Shane Nelson, who is one of the penitentiary’s most notorious and dangerous inmates. They certainly don’t know that they were high school sweethearts.
Shane was the star quarterback who is now spending the rest of his life in prison for a series of grisly murders. Locked away because of Brooke’s testimony. But Shane knows and he will never forget.
Final thoughts on Freida McFadden books in order
The Freida McFadden books in order trace the trajectory of her writing career as she has become a reputable author in the genre of psychological thrillers. Many of her books also feature a medical element either through profession or circumstance, which McFadden is able to describe in incredible and realistic detail.
This, in combination with her compelling twists, is what has helped McFadden become a bestselling author.